Egg Beater No. 4
In 1927, Stuart Davis affixed an eggbeater, a rubber glove, and an electric fan to a table in his studio. This combination of modern appliances, reminiscent of Dada's appreciation for absurd pairings, became the focal point of his art for a year. Egg Beater, No. 4 is the last in a series of four highly distinctive compositions depicting the same still-life and is often regarded as his first truly abstract painting.
By choosing seemingly unrelated objects, Davis was able to disregard their utilitarian functions and instead concentrate on the relationships between color, shapes, and space. "My aim," Davis wrote, "was... to strip a subject down to the real physical source of its stimulus." In No. 4, objects are deconstructed and distilled into basic shapes and planes so that their forms become nearly unidentifiable. Overlapping planes and bold colors evoke the improvisation and rhythm of jazz music. While the previous works in the series suggested depth of space through the arrangement of shapes and planes, space in this final piece is ambiguous. Here, Davis offers a more intellectual approach to still-life painting, one that engages the mind rather than the senses.
Although the artist never considered himself a pure abstractionist, shortly after completing this series, he reintroduced signs, text, and recognizable urban landmarks into his work. Nonetheless, he maintained that the Egg Beater series represented a turning point in his artistic development. He later recalled that it "allowed me to understand certain structural principles that I have continued to use ever since."
